Rudolf Dreikurs

By: Justice M & Hadley R

Rudolf Dreikurs

By: Justice M & Hadley R

Background

Rudolph Dreikurs was born in Vienna, Austria in 1897. He attended the University of Vienna. In 1937 he moved to the US. In Chicago he became the head of the Alfred Adler Institute. Later, he founded and directed the Community Child Guidance Center of Chicago.

Theory

Rudolph had two theoretical models that tied in with each other, the first is the 4 mistaken goals of behaviour, and the second is the democratic teaching method.

The four mistaken goals of behaviour are

-Attention Getting

-Power Seeking

-Revenge

-Feelings of Inadequacy

These are the four things that children seek to fix when they misbehave. When they misbehave it if their ineffective way of dealing with one of these four issues.

The democratic teaching method revolves around mutual respect and being a more of a passive guide. Instead of being a boss, you lead the students into what they are suppose to learn. It also involves encouraging students instead of praising them. Dreikurs believed that if you praise a student, they will do well just for the praise, where if you encourage them they will do well just to do well.

Real-Life Example

Imagine a normal grade school classroom. In this classroom, there is a problem child who ruined another's art project. The teacher then sends them to the disciplinary office where they receive their punishment. In a classroom using the Democratic Teaching method, the teacher would ask the child why they did it, find the problem, attempt to solve the problem, then encourage the student to do better. This has a much higher chance of preventing further incidents, and improving the child's life.